Journalist in Residence Stephen Kinzer writes about looking beyond the turmoil facing many parts of the world today, to reflect on what kind of “threat matrix” we will face in the future, like access to food, water and energy.

Co-Director of South Asian Studies Vazira Zamindar notes the coinciding anniversaries of US drone strikes in Pakistan and the first air strikes in Waziristan, and assesses the immense costs of war that go hand in hand with aerial bombardment.

In Al Jazeera Journalist in Residence Stephen Kinzer explains that in paying ransom for it's citizens, the US would be putting a "target" on the backs of future citizens abroad to become victims of a hostage situation.

Ashutosh Varshney, Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences and director of the Brown-India Initiative, in an op-ed in The Indian Express, discusses India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and says: "Have the tropes of his vision and strategy started emerging? Let me suggest that pragmatism, as opposed to ideological correctness, is the clearest emerging trope."

Mark Blyth, professor of international political economy, and hedge fund manager Eric Longergan argue that the way to improve the global economy's problem of insufficient spending is not to pump new money into the financial system, but to employ direct money transfers to reduce dependence on the banking system for growth.

In the Boston Globe, Journalist in Residence Stephen Kinzer writes that the US should use a criterion other than "democratic" when judging which governments are praiseworthy or at least deserve our sympathy. "It is fine to encourage those who seem most likely to be 'democratic' as we define that term," he says. "But we should also ask: Who in this country can establish control, provide security, and improve lives?"

Elias Muhanna, assistant professor of comparative literature, exposes the history of border trouble in Iraq and Syria and tells The New Yorker: "Whatever Iraq and Syria may be today, their coherence—as historical ideas, as administrative provinces, and as political symbols—predates by many centuries the British-French agreement that drew their current borders."

On CNN, Soledad O'Brien cites the Watson Institute for International Studies' Cost of War Project in a new film by Starfish Media Group which documents the toll PTSD takes on the lives of soldiers returning home from war.

In a July 25 Arria Formula meeting at the UN, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic and adjunct professor of international studies at Watson, addressed the UN Security Council on the crisis in Syria. Read his remarks here.

Watson Institute Overseer Stephen Robert discusses Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's position on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine and says that despite previous failed attempts, a two-state solution must be reached in order to avoid more tragedies like Gaza.

Writing in the Boston Globe, Visiting Fellow Stephen Kinzer notes the value of conventional military power, long a strength of the United States, has declined. "For much of history ... victory depended on your army," he writes. Today, "cultural forces and webs of global politics and economics bind nations together in ways that make the exercise of military power more difficult. The idea that a big power can easily stop, win, or decisively intervene in an overseas conflict by applying massive force is a relic of past centuries."

Associate Director of the Watson Institute Peter Andeas in an interview with Truthout.org: "Whether we like to recognize it or not, all sorts of illicit cross-border trade flourished throughout the nation's history. "

Ashutosh Varshney, Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences and director of the Brown-India Initiative, spoke to reporters on Friday on the sidelines of Panjab University’s first colloquium lecture held on the campus in the new academic year about new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.